Cookiepedia & Writing It Down

Although it’s always possible to Google for recipes, read blogs and find recipes, use the online recipe websites, or use your Grandmother’s top secret recipe for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, it’s nice to have 50 popular yet diverse recipes all in one book.

The other thing I like about the book is that it has space on the pages to write notes and jot things down. I am the queen of scribbling things next to recipes (with flour and butter on my fingers amid baking) but most cookbooks don’t have places for notes. That was a nice touch.

I am excited to make Molasses Spice or Snickerdoodle Cookies from the book; classics that I haven’t tried my hand at yet, but want to.

Even if it meant I had grease marks and flour dusted all over my scraps of paper and the pen was slipping out of my hands because I had butter and dough all over my fingers, I stopped to write things down. I don’t even use a notepad. My kitchen notes are scattered on random scraps of paper. Normally I’m not random like that but my recipes tend to be on little scraps. Not high tech, at all.

1. Do you have a favorite cookbook or any cookbooks that you resort to over and over?

I’m not the best lately with cracking open my cookbooks. I get so much online these days that I don’t use a fraction of the books I own or anywhere near their fullest extent of recipes. Blogs, online sources, or Pinterest anyone?

2. Do you write notes down when you’re baking or cooking so that you can remember things later?

I used to think that I’d remember what I did or how I made something because it was so “obvious” or easy so wasn’t always the best at writing things down.

Until the next time I went to make that recipe months (or years) later and had absolutely no idea what tweaks or changes I made to an existing recipe. And sometimes didn’t have the foggiest idea how I even began or started the recipe.

That happened to me with granola. I used to make it years ago but randomly stopped for about 5 years and when I went to make it again was scratching my head. I knew there was oats and sugar. Or did I use Karo Syrup and brown sugar? Or maybe white sugar with margarine? Yeah. I learned the hard to write things down. Granola recipe (vegan, gluten-free) was recovered but it took some trial and error. Lesson learned for me is to just stop and write things down because my memory apparently isn’t always what I think it is.

22 comments

I’m normally Pretty good at remembering recipes I am making, but the greasy, floury, chocolatey covered fingers of Mine end up Leaving prints allll over the kitchen. The cooking spray is permanently covered In cookie dough, cake batter, etc.

Congrats on your new cookbook. Please promise me you’ll make the pignoli cookies. Those are so awesome and I’m looking for a good recipe for them ;-)

I love cookbooks period. I almost never use them, but love looking through for ideas and flavor combos I might never think of. I do keep a recipe journal in the kitchen for writing down recipes and have gotten over my No Writing in Books rule.

I love the cover and design of that book– so cute!

I’m the EXACT same way about writing things down! I’ll find pieces of paper with a recipe scribbled down stuffed into my jacket pockets, in my purse, in my car… It’s always kind of exciting trying to remember what I made with the recipe, how it turned out, and then having the chance to make it again. Also, the cookbook looks wonderful!

I pretty much just go with the flow…it’s always random and usually turns out pretty good in spite of the lack of organization…and recipe!

I love hwen cook books are so worn in, stained a little, completely used. Those are the best kinds! I love looking through my mom’s old cookbooks and remembering meals she made and seeing how used they are. I usually take notes as the item is baking or cooking before I forget!

This cookbook looks great! I know you can get recipes online, but I think a cookbook is so much nicer! I need to find a place so I can have easier access to them. My kitchen is to small!

I am all about writing it down. And then I added more flour, more butter, etc. You just never know what you are going to tweak and if something sucks, you have to have it written to know why! And vice versa if it turns out great. Its the scientist in me.

I have a huge stack of cookbooks and rarely crack them out, but when I do, I have a few favorites that I use as base recipes. Better Homes and Garden is always good for a jumping off point, and I have a couple vegan ones that I really like – Nava Atlas has a couple good ones.

I definitely get messy fingers all over things but as far as writing notes down, I try to remember to do that afterwards, rather than in the middle of it. Definitely a good idea to make a note…

I am a cookbook whore. I admit it. I love cookbooks, especially when there are color pictures of the recipe. My go to books are from America’s Test Kitchen. Food science is geeky-fascinating. I’m a note jotter just like you–somewhere on the page. A goal for “someday” is to take one of those books and make everything in it. (like on Julie & Julia) only nothing that requires a calf foot :)

I’m constantly writing down notes and changing recipes around to my own intolerances and preferences. I try and keep track of any little tweak or trick to make it better because I want my food to taste awesome, not just “ok.”

I have a lot of favourite cook books, but I usually only go back to them for one or two specific recipes that I have tried and liked. I need to take the time to venture on to other pages of my favourite recipe books and see what else they have to offer.

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